What summer blockbusters should be more like

Rating: 7/10 (28 July 2013)

Pacific Rim is a film that doesn't try to hide what it is. An updating of Japanese giant monster movies that first were all the rage in the 1950s, Pacific Rim tells a similar story with the benefit of much higher-end visual effects than was possible on the lower budgeted events of eras past. However, Pacific Rim, unlike many Hollywood summer blockbusters, doesn't really skimp on other elements that make for a good film, with attention to character and story along the way. No one will mistake Pacific Rim as a masterpiece, but no one ever said being a blockbuster meant you had to be a bad film.
Set in the near future, the Earth has been under constant attack by giant monsters, named Kaiju, that are emerging from a dimensional rift on the floor of the Pacific ocean. To combat the Kaiju, the governments of the world have built the Jaegers, giant, multi-story robots, controlled by two pilots who have melded their minds to prevent the mental strain of manning the Jaegers from turning their brains to mush. One Jaeger pilot, Raleigh Becket (Charlie Hunnam) gave up the program years earlier when his brother, who was his Jaeger co-pilot, had been killed in a confrontation with a Kaiju. However, since then, the Kaiju have become more dangerous, and the various world leaders have decided to put all their energy into building a giant wall to surround the coastlines of the Pacific from the Kaiju. Marshall Pentecost (Idris Elba) does not believe that will prevent the Kaiju from destroying the planet, so he and the four remaining Jaegers are assembled at Hong Kong to lead a final charge against the Kaiju to stop them once and for all. To man one of the Jaegers, Pentecost has brought Raleigh back into the fold, teaming him up with Mako (Rinko Kikuchi) to help lead the battle, but Raleigh's troubled past, and emotional scars of Mako's own, make the success of the mission seem dubious.
Pacific Rim's screenplay written by Travis Beacham and the film's director, Guillermo del Toro, assembles elements that have been well worn in countless other movies. The earth under attack from menacing alien forces, the reluctant hero, the final desperate charge of a rag tag band of survivors, there isn't hardly any aspect that hasn't been lifted from somewhere else. So, while Pacific Rim won't get an A for originality, del Toro and Beacham do an impressive job of assembling the pieces into an entertaining, engaging whole. One key thing del Toro does right is to not transform Pacific Rim into an action orgy, like the recent Transformers films. While you can't accuse Pacific Rim of being without action, the film isn't a constant slog through an endless cycle of action sequences. There is attention given to setting up the plot, and also to establishing the characters and their relationships to one another. Pacific Rim's strongest example of this is the development of Raleigh and Mako's partnership, with more than a hint of romance lurking beneath. The two actors have a distinct chemistry, and that comes across in their scenes together. Like most good movies, Pacific Rim knows that without strong characters, everything else is just a lot of empty sound and images.
When the film does provide its action sequences, Pacific Rim largely delivers. It's prime set piece is a large scene about half-way through set in Hong Kong and the surrounding bay. The action is exciting, well staged, and full of energy. del Toro crafts this sequence to maximum effect, getting the adrenaline pumping. Filmmakers that want to see how to stage large scale action should look no further than this major scene. Pacific Rim isn't exactly perfect, though. Two scientist characters, portrayed by Charlie Day and Burn Gorman, are intended to be comic relief, but their performances are so shrill and over the top, they quickly become annoying and off putting. del Toro also gives a small role to one of his regulars, Ron Perlman, as a Kaiju organ black marketeer, and while I always enjoy seeing Perlman pop up in anything, here he is largely filer, his character producing a smile at first, but, in the long run, not a very interesting role. Pacific Rim's ending is a bit underwhelming also, as the obvious parallels to other films robs the end of some of its energy. It doesn't ruin the movie, but a fresher conclusion would have been beneficial.
Pacific Rim is the blockbuster Summer popcorn film that you generally wish more summer blockbusters would emulate rather than brain dead junk such as Transformers. By working in some nice character material, and allowing the film to breathe between action sequences, Pacific Rim manages to deliver a generally entertaining two hours at the movies. Its not groundbreaking or particularly deep, but for what it is, it delivers the goods.